I am no stranger to RTS games, i have played all of the Total War series, CoH 1 & 2, Starcraft 1 & 2, Panzer corps and most of the C & C series, it is my favourite genre along with Grand Strategy games like Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis as well as being a FIDE rank torunament winning chess player.

Having just bought this game I have spent the most infuriating and frustrating few hours of my considerable gaming life. Nothing makes sense to the new user, there is nothing in the way of an 'in game tutorial' as most right thinking people would recognise one. Countless text boxes do spam the screen occasionally but they don't relate in any obvious way to whatever it is I am attempting to do at that moment.

I am not a stupid person and i usually find it quite easy to get into new games even if it takes considerably longer to master them, however, I admit defeat with this title and have been completely put off the game as a result, it feels as though the more i try to play it the less clear everything becomes.

you do realize that all types of units all have their own strenghts and weaknesses. plus the fact you need to know calibers, ammo type, and countless other military detail to play this game. this game isnt something you can play once or twice and have knowledge how it works. it takes pratice and practice to learn the basics. this game also has one of the biggest learning curves i have ever encounted on a rts and stragety game. all im trying to point out is at least give it more time to play and having people to play with will definitly change your view of this game.

I am not conceerned about the level of detail or the amount of information that needs to be absorbed during the learning process, my post is talking about the UI and the lack of tools to assist the new player get to grips with the games controls.

Well you obviously have access to the Internet since you are here so you cannot rightly say you do not have access to tools to help you learn the game. Look up guides and watch youtube videos and learn from watching others play. The UI is not that bad. or are you complaing about the unit icons?

Unit icons are my only gripe. Imo they are way too large and afaik fixed in size / style . It can be quite difficult to get an intutive grasp of where anything is. A suggestion; allow a hot key to reduce icons to a mere visual of unit type (or shortened name, say 'T80'); more info can be got by hovering the mouse. I thgink after you have watched it played a few times, it all makes simple sense, but I remember struggling for quite a while to even have the slightest clue how to play

Unit icons are my only gripe. Imo they are way too large and afaik fixed in size / style . It can be quite difficult to get an intutive grasp of where anything is. A suggestion; allow a hot key to reduce icons to a mere visual of unit type (or shortened name, say 'T80'); more info can be got by hovering the mouse. I thgink after you have watched it played a few times, it all makes simple sense, but I remember struggling for quite a while to even have the slightest clue how to play

Go to options<gameplay and you can set the markers really tiny to the point i need to squint to read the names

it's not only me it seems, there are hundreds of topics on the forums started by new players saying precisely the same thing.

this series looks like a lot of fun, unforunately lazy UI design and the lack of anything even resembling a proper tutorial has alienated 1000's of new players who bought it and will prevent thousands more from buying it, that can only reduce the size of the community and limit the games obvious potential to break out of the 'niche' bracket and become a well known, well respected mainstream classic.

short sighted and a shame that the learning curve starts with a solid brick wall.

All three of these games have a steep learning curve. if you want a game to hold your hand then yeah this game is not for you. If you actually have the ability to think and learn for yourself this is the game for you.

The UI seamed pretty straight forward to me and if i had questions starting out I would just ask my allies. Most people are freindly enough, besides, there is a tutorial, and lets play videos and such as mentioned above.

Ive found the UI to be excellent, and able to convey alot of detailed information without cluttering the screen. Sure the learning curve is steep,( it took me a good 6 hours to work alot of stuff out) but as a fellow Europa Universalis player I can't say it is any less complecated (in terms of UI) than AirLand Battle. I mean, the tutorial in EU IV may as well not be there.

you do realize that all types of units all have their own strenghts and weaknesses. plus the fact you need to know calibers, ammo type, and countless other military detail to play this game. this game isnt something you can play once or twice and have knowledge how it works. it takes pratice and practice to learn the basics. this game also has one of the biggest learning curves i have ever encounted on a rts and stragety game. all im trying to point out is at least give it more time to play and having people to play with will definitly change your view of this game.

However if you do know about the capabilities of the real life units in question you will end up♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥yourself laughing at the way they have been butchered for this game..it took me several hours to adapt from accurate games to this and i still have moments of regression.

I am no stranger to RTS games, i have played all of the Total War series, CoH 1 & 2, Starcraft 1 & 2, Panzer corps and most of the C & C series, it is my favourite genre along with Grand Strategy games like Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis as well as being a FIDE rank torunament winning chess player.

Having just bought this game I have spent the most infuriating and frustrating few hours of my considerable gaming life. Nothing makes sense to the new user, there is nothing in the way of an 'in game tutorial' as most right thinking people would recognise one. Countless text boxes do spam the screen occasionally but they don't relate in any obvious way to whatever it is I am attempting to do at that moment.

I am not a stupid person and i usually find it quite easy to get into new games even if it takes considerably longer to master them, however, I admit defeat with this title and have been completely put off the game as a result, it feels as though the more i try to play it the less clear everything becomes.

With regret I uninstalled it and certainly won't be buying Red Dragon

Wildman, you should re-install this game or, better, install European escalation. As a new player of the former, I think that's the tutorial you're looking for.I'm playing the solo campaigns for one month and i'm still struggling with the 3rd scenario (Ramstein) of the 3rd campaign (able archer). I also tried to play Airland battle and i went back to European Escalation within 2 days.

Only after 1 month I can reasonably say that I can handle recon, tanks, logistics and infantry in a fairly smooth and efficient way. I still need to learn how to handle and integrate arty and airmobile forces . That's the reason why I think that I'm not ready for the "Air" component of the Airland battle.

Regarding your complain about the UI, well, the only thing is the size of the markers: Despite the wonderful graphics and models of each unit you don't really have time to play this game at max zoom on your beloved platoon of Leopards because you need to play this game with a decent "strategic" view . And , when you're running a reasonable amount of units, the big screen is totally useless. You need to , constantly, zoom-in and out at each of you clustered units areas.

Just like you , I have a very long history of wargaming, back to the tabletop games of Avalon-hill and Victory games (grand strategy/operational /tactical ). In the RTS category, I've played Theatre of War, CoH,MoW and, I have to said that, so far, Wargame is the best.

Even if the zoomed in graphics are not much used during a game, it is quite fun to occasionally look at a replay from the point of units.To see some unexpected and cool sequences of action, you could for instance select a random vehicle from your starting forces (one which is going to see action). Follow it at max zoom in, rotate the map to see what it is seeing. When it is destroyed, follow whichever enemy unit did it, when that is destroyed...

Even if the zoomed in graphics are not much used during a game, it is quite fun to occasionally look at a replay from the point of units.To see some unexpected and cool sequences of action, you could for instance select a random vehicle from your starting forces (one which is going to see action). Follow it at max zoom in, rotate the map to see what it is seeing. When it is destroyed, follow whichever enemy unit did it, when that is destroyed...

Things look very different from that point of view.

I fully agree...Graphics are superb ( I'm running WALB on a high specs desktop and it's really gorgeous). The thing is the zoomed out map. There must be a way to represent the units in a more "visible" way...I´ll even buy some red or blue spots or tiny squares (no need for actual unit type), It's just to have the big picture. I guess that I'm used to strategic games UI and I'm missing the point :)

The biggest thing that you may not have realized is that this is not just another RTS game. It is a comprehensive in depth battle simulator with realistic strategy elements, not Europa Universalis or Civ 5. Unlearn all skills that you have learned in other RTS games and treat this like a different genre of game. THAT is the only way you will ever suceed.